is there a solution to turn my Promise thunderbolt RAID into a SAN/Server?

[Eric Hansen]

sure. get a Mac Mini, a Small Tree Thundernet box with four 1GbE ports and share them to your workstations. for a bit more money, you could instead get a 10GbE Thundernet box and a 10GbE switch from Netgear.

keep in mind that four 1GbE connections (or a 10GbE connection) to an R4 will push it to its limits, so i wouldn’t expect enough bandwidth for 4 concurrent editors, especially multi-cam. something like an Areca 8050 with 8 drives would be much better. but if you’re asking if it’s possible, the answer is yes. is it ideal and reliable, no.

e

Eric Hansen
Production Workflow Designer / Consultant / Colorist / DIT
https://www.erichansen.tv

[Bob Zelin]

as Eric said, this will work, but you will get limited performance with only a 4 bay.

If you need help, just contact me.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com

[Jason Silzle]

As both Eric and Bob Said, limited throughput but we are doing something very similar to this and it is working for us.

Our components:

– MacMini Server 2.3ghz 4 Core i7 and i put 16GB of ram in it.
– Areca Thunder Raid 8050 with 24TB (8 3TB Hitachi Drives)
– SMALL TREE 6 port Thunderbolt Nic (Card/Chassis Combo)
– Studio Network Solutions “XTarget” Server and then iSanMP Clients

I would really recomend something like SNS Xtarget and iSanMP so you can hand out read/write limits to different vols or users. I also wouldn’t try to load up 6 boxes direct connect at te same time (via the Small Tree 6 NIC) but we chose 6 ports over 4 ports so we could simply have different stations at different times setup.

Thank you,

Jason Silzle
https://www.dovedigitalmedia.com
Owner/Founder
Dove Digital Media

[Bob Zelin]

Jason – are you using FCP 7 or Adobe Premiere ?

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com

[Tyler Henry]

Hi –
I was wondering about configuring a similar setup and just stumbled onto this thread.
We have 4 editing stations, though only 2-3 are in use at a time.
– Mac Pro 2010
– iMac 2011
– iMac 2013
– MacBook Pro 2013

All are running FCP 7, editing multicam (4-track) projects in a mixture of XDCAM EX 35MBps and ProRes 422 HQ. Right now we just use sneakernet for project sharing. We may also switch to Premiere soon.

The MacMini Server/Areca Thunderbolt Raid/Small Tree ThunderNet/SNS iSanMP solution is definitely intriguing.
It seems that it might make more sense to get an all-in-one solution like the ProMax Platform Studio.
https://www.promax.com/s-226-platform-studio-features.aspx
I’m not sure what the price difference is though.

Are there any advantages to either system or incompatibilities with our editing setup? We’re a pretty small, seasonal operation so we don’t have an IT admin or even always permanent editors. We’re able to get our feet wet setting something up but it needs to be pretty low-maintenance so new hires can keep it running. Something more plug-and-play would be ideal.

Thanks for your help! Your forum posts have been a huge help in the past.

[Bob Zelin]

the price will be the same. ProMax Platform is a wonderful Linux based solution.
The Mac Mini solution, which you DO NOT need to run SANmp with (to save money) is just Mac components. You can buy this as a turnkey solution if you like as well from Maxx Digital, or you can do it yourself. ProMax has an easy to use user interface. With the Mac Mini solution, you click on GO> Connect To Server, and you have mounted your shared volume. That’s it.

My email is below if you have any further questions –
Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com

[Josh Thomason]

Tyler,

Give me a call, if you would like to discuss pricing and options for the Platform Studio.

Thanks,
Josh Thomason
ProMAX Systems
949-861-2721 -direct

[Josh Thomason]

Bob, The Platform Studio is actually running on Windows 2012 Server, not Linux.

[Tyler Henry]

Thanks for the info –
Bob, is that MAXX Digital solution the Final Share 10G?
That looks surprisingly simple and we have a Mac Pro available.

What’s the advantage to installing sanMP if it’s not necessary? Is it only necessary for larger bandwidths?

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Tyler –
speak to Josh at ProMax, and then speak to me. You can decide for yourself.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com